Former two division world champion Juan Manuel Lopez (35-5, 32 KOs) took advantage of an injured former WBO 122lb champion Wilfredo “Papito” Vazquez, Jr. (24-7-1, 19 KOs) to stop him in the 11th round tonight at the Roberto Clemente Coliseum in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Vasquez Jr. suffered an eye injury that caused him problems in the 11th. The southpaw Lopez then unloaded on the 32-year-old Vasquez Jr. with a blizzard of punches to put him down on the canvas.
For some reason, the referee chose to stop the fight immediately rather than letting Vasquez Jr. attempt to get up from the knockdown. Vasquez Jr. was on his backside leaning against the ropes when Weeks stopped the fight at 2:29 of the round.
Immediately after the fight ended, Lopez rushed over to Vasquez Jr. and attempted to have words with him. At this point someone from Vasquez Jr’s team appeared to slug Lopez with a series of shots to the head. Lopez backed off rather than going after the person. He showed good restraint because some fighters would have ended things immediately if they had been slugged the way that Lopez was.
Earlier in the fight, Lopez, 33, hurt Vasquez Jr. with a right hand to the head in the 5th round. The shot staggered Vasquez Jr. It was the beginning of the end for Vasquez Jr. from that point on, as he couldn’t stop the southpaw Lopez from walking him down and nailing him with beautiful hooks and straight lefts. Lopez looked good when he was in the attack mode in the fight.
Vasquez looked like the better fighter from rounds one through four. If it had been a four-round fight, he would have won. Unfortunately for Vasquez, Lopez took complete control over the fight from round 5, and began to batter him with heavy looking shots.
Vasquez had one last good round in the 7th, but that was it. Lopez turned up the pressure from that point on. Vasquez Jr. could not handle the nonstop shots from Lopez, and he was unable to get away from him no matter how hard he tried.
Vasquez Jr. tried to box Lopez in rounds eight through eleven, but it was no use. Lopez wasn’t interesting in boxing. He was on a hunt and destroy mission, and he wasn’t going to be deterred by Vasquez Jr.
This was a good performance for Lopez tonight, as he hadn’t fought in the last two years. You could tell from looking at him that he had taken weight off to get into shape for the fight. He didn’t look like the lean fighter that had won two division world titles in the past.